Holiday program gives rides home from bars

GOSHEN — For the fourth year in a row, Dana Distributors will be paying for rides for people who've had a few too many at bars throughout Orange, Sullivan and Rockland counties.

BY NATHAN BROWN

GOSHEN — For the fourth year in a row, Dana Distributors will be paying for rides for people who've had a few too many at bars throughout Orange, Sullivan and Rockland counties.

The program, which Dana offers in conjunction with local taxi companies, has been growing every year — last year, they gave 168 rides, up from 117 in 2010, said Tom Kennedy, general sales manager for the Goshen-based Anheuser-Busch distributors.

Kennedy was flanked by more than a dozen police and county officials and politicians, several of whom spoke to hammer home the message that you should designate a driver or get a cab if you've been drinking.

"We don't want to read about you being in a hospital or morgue come Jan. 1," said state Sen. John Bonacic, R-C-Mount Hope. "We want you to live a long, happy and healthy life."

Drunk driving is still the most common crime in many towns — 17 percent of all arrests in Orange, Ulster and Sullivan counties in 2011 were for DWI, according to Division of Criminal Justice Services statistics — but it has generally been declining over the past few decades, because of stricter enforcement and changing attitudes. Village of Monroe police Chief Dom Giudice said that his officers often make traffic stops and find designated drivers.

"I know, in our end of the county, the program is working," he said.

Drunken-driving deaths nationwide fell by 52 percent from 1982 to 2010; Deputy Orange County Executive James O'Donnell noted that 2011 was the first year with under 10,000.

"There's a lot more work to be done, but I congratulate Dana Distributors for 26 years of doing an excellent job," he said.

Kennedy said the rides are part of Anheuser-Busch's larger programs to encourage responsible drinking, in which Dana has been active — those 168 rides in 2011 represent 10 percent of the rides provided by Anheuser-Busch distributors statewide that year.

The rides are available between 4 p.m. and 2 a.m., and they'll take you home within a 10-mile radius of the bar. To see if the bar takes part, ask the bartender or look around for one of the Alert Cab posters they've been putting up. Dana sponsors the same program Thanksgiving Eve, St. Patrick's Day and for the Super Bowl.

nbrown@th-record.com

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